r/PeterExplainsTheJoke • u/Light_Yagami72 • Aug 01 '26

Meme needing explanation Petah why cant math be green?

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519

u/V-Man776 Aug 01 '26

The joke is that for some reason people get really up in arms about what color of binder or notebook others use for each school subject. This is because people see certain colors as being more fitting for certain subjects than others. It seems as though the Staples social media manager has strong feelings on this topic, saying that OOP chose the wrong color to represent math, even though it really doesn't matter since abstract concepts like school subjects don't really have an objective way to color code them.

With that said, OOP is right. Math is green because I like math and also like green, so clearly they should be paired together.

162

u/SatsumaOranges Aug 01 '26

The nuance here is that for some reason a lot of people agree on certain subjects without knowing it. For example, here is a (very small sample size) survey where nearly everyone agreed that science is green.
https://machronicle.com/the-great-rainbow-debate-what-color-are-the-subjects/

It was a topic of discussion on social media a few months back, I believe.

26

u/papa-hare Aug 01 '26

Is science like biology? That's def green. But chemistry and physics? Idk. (Is science really a subject in school here?! Like non differentiated?)

29

u/SatsumaOranges Aug 01 '26

Depends where you live and what grade, I guess. Where I grew up we had a generic science until grade 7, where it split.

6

u/Noughmad Aug 01 '26

Same here, but then again we didn't have differentiated history up to that grade as well. We start with one subject of "nature and society", then separate "nature" and "society", then finally separate biology (and later chemistry and physics), history and geography.

2

u/Dudegamer010901 Aug 01 '26

For us science was generic for elementary (K to Grade 8) and then for high school it was split up.

10

u/m4xr3b0 Aug 01 '26

Usually this sort of color coding is used for younger kids. So yes they just have "science" as a class. Then as they get older most people continue using the same color coding they're used to even when it's no longer enforced.

2

u/C4pture Aug 01 '26

for us color coding was actually for the teachers. class 1 has red, class 2 has blue, class 3 has green for example, so they dont get them mixed up

6

u/ANR7cool Aug 01 '26

Did you have science differentiated since 1st grade?

0

u/RevoOps Aug 01 '26

Natural and Social sciences were split since grade 1.

8

u/ANR7cool Aug 01 '26

Okay but were Natural sciences differentiated since grade 1

8

u/TheGhostlyMage Aug 01 '26

No see that’s where they trick you, social sciences actually falls under the history category

4

u/SatsumaOranges Aug 01 '26

Oh we called it social studies, completely different.

2

u/dopesheet_ Aug 01 '26

that was aqua blue for sure 😄

5

u/trustthepudding Aug 01 '26

Green is the stereotypical color of chemicals and radioactivity in popular media so I feel like it all tracks to science.

3

u/Glittering_Ice9025 Aug 01 '26

Oh I always thought of it as science like nature so green.

1

u/NNKarma Aug 01 '26

I would say when it's science it's a bit of the 3 combined, though mostly biology for 5th grade

1

u/dasbtaewntawneta Aug 01 '26

in Australia we did "science" years 7 - 10 and then you pick if you want to do specific science electives in years 11 & 12 (biology/chemistry/physics)

1

u/Caleb_Reynolds Aug 01 '26

Usually for younger students science is it's own subject where they introduce ideas like observations and the scientific method.

And it's blue, not green. You're right, the only time science is green is if it's bio related. Otherwise it's blue or purple.

1

u/Dragon_Sluts Aug 01 '26

Science overall is green.

But once it was split out I though chemistry was orange and physicals was purple.

1

u/Rj924 Aug 01 '26

It's just "Science" from 7-8 (Age 11ish-13ish). Then in High school, its differentiated (14ish-17ish). But you typically only take one per year. So it fills your "science" requirement for the year.

1

u/Own_Hunter_1384 Aug 01 '26

Ours is like progressive so your science class for each year will be different, your math class for each year is different, social studies is different each year, but English is English. But most people stick to the same color code through school

1

u/JGHFunRun Aug 01 '26

Chemistry is naturally yellow, but yellow chem is evil (why is… that when I fuck up a reaction… IT’S ALWAYS YELLOW). Blue is a natural antidote to yellow, so chem should be blue

1

u/hanguitarsolo Aug 01 '26

Biology - blue, Chemistry - green, Physics - red.

I have spoken.

1

u/SkinnyAssHacker Aug 02 '26

My botany notebook was green; my earth science notebook was blue; my math notebook was red; my literature notebook was purple; my psychology notebook was yellow...